New Precision

The Air Force wants a new class of precision munitions capable of being guided to targets without satellite-provided geo-location information. The Air Armaments Center, Eglin Air Force Base, on April 12 solicited white papers on “near-demonstration ready” super- and subsonic “Non-GPS Precision Navigation Solutions.”

In an amendment to an April 10 Broad Area Announcement, the Air Force yesterday asked for proposals for the following subsonic capability:

A precision navigation solution, not augmented by GPS, is needed for subsonic air launched weapons. Assume a poor initial inertial measurement unit (IMU) alignment, since the GPS signal may not be available for the launch aircraft. The vehicle will cruise between 200 and 1000 feet at speeds around than Mach 0.7. Flight times will be in excess of three hours. Near GPS quality accuracies by the start of the terminal flight phase is desired.

Assumptions for supersonic proposals should include vehicle cruising above 40,000 feet “at speeds greater than mach 1.5” and flight times “in excess of one hour.”